When we traveled to South Africa in 2008, Ari thought the moon was upside down. He spent a lot of time aligning his view of the moon with buildings, lamp posts, and other objects whose orientation was not in doubt, and photographing the moon as proof that, even though people don't walk on their heads in the Southern Hemisphere, the moon does.
I thought this was hilarious. To me, the moon wasn't upside down at all. It was just in its normal South African orientation, just like it would be in its different, but equally normal, Northern Hemisphere orientation when we returned to the United States.
Some things truly have an upside down and right side up orientation, independent of what you're used to. Nobody sees walking on your hands as normal, because we're all born subject to gravity with a body shape that makes walking on your feet much more natural. Someone walking on their hands is definitely upside down.
But the moon, and the sky in general, isn't really upside down in the Southern Hemisphere. If you were born and lived your whole life in the Southern Hemisphere, you'd probably perceive the moon as upside down the first time you saw it in the Northern Hemisphere.
There are other terms that depend a lot on the eye of the beholder. The main one that comes to mind for me is "overseas." Of course, where I am now, anyone who isn't in the City and County of Honolulu is over some amount of sea from me - even people elsewhere in my state are "overseas" in that sense. But in another sense, "overseas" is often used to mean "a foreign country." And when people say things like, "Were you born overseas?" I feel a little stab of rebellion. When I was born there, it wasn't foreign to me - I had yet to travel over any seas. I gave up my South African citizenship when I became a US citizen in 2012, but it still feels just as true to say that I live overseas now as to say I was born overseas then. It's an upside down word - it seems to depend at least partly on the eye of the beholder.
Are there any other upside down words, words that people around you use in one way but which make you think about something in a way that you know is quite different from how they are using it?
I thought this was hilarious. To me, the moon wasn't upside down at all. It was just in its normal South African orientation, just like it would be in its different, but equally normal, Northern Hemisphere orientation when we returned to the United States.
Some things truly have an upside down and right side up orientation, independent of what you're used to. Nobody sees walking on your hands as normal, because we're all born subject to gravity with a body shape that makes walking on your feet much more natural. Someone walking on their hands is definitely upside down.
But the moon, and the sky in general, isn't really upside down in the Southern Hemisphere. If you were born and lived your whole life in the Southern Hemisphere, you'd probably perceive the moon as upside down the first time you saw it in the Northern Hemisphere.
There are other terms that depend a lot on the eye of the beholder. The main one that comes to mind for me is "overseas." Of course, where I am now, anyone who isn't in the City and County of Honolulu is over some amount of sea from me - even people elsewhere in my state are "overseas" in that sense. But in another sense, "overseas" is often used to mean "a foreign country." And when people say things like, "Were you born overseas?" I feel a little stab of rebellion. When I was born there, it wasn't foreign to me - I had yet to travel over any seas. I gave up my South African citizenship when I became a US citizen in 2012, but it still feels just as true to say that I live overseas now as to say I was born overseas then. It's an upside down word - it seems to depend at least partly on the eye of the beholder.
Are there any other upside down words, words that people around you use in one way but which make you think about something in a way that you know is quite different from how they are using it?
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